Integration of cellular phone detection and reporting into a prison telephone system

ABSTRACT

The present subject matter is directed to an apparatus and methodology for monitoring for the occurrence of use of unauthorized telecommunications equipment within a designated area. The present subject matter has particular utility to the corrections environment in that it discloses a methodology for detecting and reporting the unauthorized operation of cellular telephones within a corrections facility. The present technology may be used advantageously in combination with inmate telephone systems to transmit information to appropriate personnel in the form of email messages and/or voice communications by way of telephone local or corrections facility external telephone lines. The present technology also provides for recordation and storage of time, date and location information for detected events.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present subject matter relates generally to a method and apparatusfor detecting reporting the operation of cellular telephones withinselected or predetermined areas. More particularly, the present subjectmatter relates to a method and apparatus for detecting the unauthorizedoperation of cellular telephones within security facilities includingprisons and reporting such operation to selected officials.

The present subject matter is directed in one aspect, although notexclusively, towards the corrections environment. Various lawenforcement entities find it desirable, even necessary (for example,such as required by law or circumstances), to monitor telephoneconversations conducted by inmates in penal institutions or otherdetainees in similar facilities. Highly specialized telecommunicationsequipment and facilities must be provided to meet the various needs ofgovernmental officials and others in addressing the desire to monitorand/or record telephone conversations under varying circumstances.

As telephone technology and, in particular, cellular technology, hasbecome more advanced, workers in the corrections environment have foundthat it has become easier to hide and smuggle into correctionsfacilities very small cellular telephones that may be used by inmate andothers to circumvent the required monitoring and/or recordingoperations. As a non-limiting example, the remainder of the presentdisclosure will refer to monitoring for cellular telephone activitywithin the above noted particular environment. It is to be strictlyunderstood, however, that the present technology may be applied toand/or used within other areas where monitoring of cellular telephoneactivity may be of interest. For example, it may be desirable, forsecurity or other purposes, to monitor cellular telephone activity inbusiness or governmental environments where confidential or classifiedinformation is being discussed. Alternatively, there could be aninterest in monitoring cellular telephone activity where operation ofsuch devices is restricted or, for courtesy, deemed undesirable such asin restaurants, places of worship, theaters and similar locations. Assuch, it should be understood that the present technology hasapplicability to any situation where there is a need or desire tomonitor cellular telephone activity within a prescribed area.

It has been common practice for many years in the correctionsenvironment to record and/or monitor inmates' conversations. Suchrecording and monitoring takes place in the very controlled atmosphereof permitted inmate communications with individuals outside of thefacilities housing prisoners or inmates. Normally prisoners are limitedto a small number of individuals that they are permitted to call. Thesemay include family members, their lawyers, and friends and mayspecifically exclude others, for example judges, jury members,witnesses, former co-conspirators and other like individuals to whomcalls from a particular inmate may be of a harassing or other undesirednature. There may be time of day, length of call, three-way call orother restrictions on calls, all of which must be controlled by way ofvarious instrumentalities that may include computer controlled equipmentat the facility and/or at remote locations in addition to humanmonitoring and/or control. In almost all instances, such telephone callsmust be recorded; yet even in those instances, there are conditions thatmay impact on the desire, ability, or legal right to record suchconversations. For example, it is inappropriate to record or monitorconversations between an inmate and his/her attorney, and thus, measuresmust be taken to insure that, where calls are made from an inmate tohis/her attorney, no recording is made or monitoring is allowed.

The particular needs described above have been addressed in the priorart, which, in major part, has provided responses to accommodate themajority of the needs addressed. Examples of such include LazerPhone™and LazerVoice®, products provided by the assignee of the presentsubject matter. LazerPhone™ is a centralized, PC-based, integratedtelephone system with features that provide control of inmatetelecommunications activities. The system provides call blocking andmonitoring, account control including personal identification number(PIN) setup and control, report generation including automated troublereports, call activity reports and other administrative reports as wellas numerous other features.

LazerVoice® is an optional feature of LazerPhone™ and provides arecording function for the LazerPhone™ system. LazerVoice® is a modularsystem that provides the ability to record at its installation siteselected telephone conversations, permit monitoring by appropriateauthorities of selected conversations, and store for later retrievalrecorded conversations as well as other functions and operationsinvolving the recording of telephone conversations. Additionalinformation regarding these products may be found at the World Wide Website, www.gtl.us, of the corporate owner of the present applicationinterests.

While it is considered well known that the recording of inmate telephoneconversations is advantageous to governmental agencies and appropriateauthorities in that information regarding the security of facilities andgeneral continuing or past criminal activity may be found in suchrecordings, advances in the cellular telephone technology have openedavenues for inmates to circumvent such monitoring and/or recordingadvantages. Maintaining the ability to insure control and/or monitoringof communications from or to a controlled facility is, therefore, animportant aspect to previously implemented telecommunications systems.As noted, with the advances in cellular communications technology, suchmaintenance of capability is hindered by such issues as the clandestinedelivery of prohibited equipment into a monitored facility. Due to thesmall size of certain of the more recently developed devices, such mayavoid detection by more conventional search techniques including, butnot limited to, walk through and manual metal detectors and evenphysical “pat-down” searches.

While various aspects and alternative features are known in the field oftelecommunications and telephone conversation monitoring, no one designhas emerged that generally integrates all of the ideal features andperformance characteristics as discussed herein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present subject matter recognizes and addresses several of theforegoing shortcomings, and others concerning certain aspects ofmonitoring telephone conversations within a corrections environment.

Thus, broadly speaking, aspects of some embodiments of the presentlydisclosed technology concern the provision of improved apparatus andcorresponding methodology to provide for the continued monitoring oftelephone conversation(s) between individuals within a correctionsfacility and called or calling parties outside such facilities. Moreparticularly, certain aspects of some embodiments of the disclosedtechnology relate to an improved apparatus and corresponding methodologyusing radio frequency (RF) monitoring device(s), the provision andpractice of which will help insure that any telephone conversations madefrom or to a corrections facility will have the maximum possibleavailability to authorized personnel.

Another aspect of certain embodiments of the present subject matter isto provide an improved apparatus and corresponding methodology thatprovides simple integration with existing corrections facilitiestelephone systems or, alternately, a significant option for newcorrections facilities telephone system installations.

A further aspect of certain embodiments of the present subject matter isto provide an improved apparatus and corresponding methodology forconveniently notifying appropriate personnel of the operation ofunauthorized telephone equipment within a corrections facility.

A still further aspect of certain embodiments of the present subjectmatter is to provide an improved apparatus and corresponding methodologyfor locating unauthorized telephone equipment within a correctionsfacility.

Additional aspects and advantages of the present subject matter are setforth in or will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art fromthe detailed description herein. Also, it should be further appreciatedby those of ordinary skill in the art that modifications and variationsto the specifically illustrated, referenced, and discussed features andsteps hereof may be practiced in various embodiments and uses of thissubject matter without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, byvirtue of present reference thereto. Such variations may include, butare not limited to, substitution of equivalent means and features,materials, or steps for those shown, referenced, or discussed, and thefunctional, operational, or positional reversal of various parts,features, steps, or the like.

Still further, it is to be understood that different embodiments, aswell as different presently preferred embodiments, of this subjectmatter may include various combinations or configurations of presentlydisclosed features, steps, or elements, or their equivalents (includingcombinations of features or steps or configurations thereof notexpressly shown in the figure or stated in the detailed description).

A first exemplary embodiment of the present subject matter relates to animproved apparatus and corresponding methodology for monitoring for thepresence of cellular telephones within a defined area.

Another exemplary embodiment of the present subject matter relates to animproved apparatus and corresponding methodology for automaticallygenerating reports of violations of cellular telephone use regulations.

A more particular exemplary embodiment of the present technology relatesto an improved apparatus and corresponding methodology for automaticallynotifying authorized personnel in real time of the operation ofunauthorized communications equipment within a prescribed area.

Still another particular exemplary embodiment of the present subjectmatter involves a specialized phone system for use in relation to aprison environment, having an associated sensor system responsive to theoperation of selected telecommunications apparatus. Such a system mayinclude one or more cellular telephone detector(s) located at selectedor predetermined location(s) within a corrections facility; an interfacedevice, an inmate telephone system, and one or more report or alarmdelivering devices. With such system, advantageously inmates will not beable to circumvent monitoring and/or recording of conversation data frominmate conversations conducted by way of unauthorized telephoneinstruments surreptitiously brought into the corrections facility.

Yet another present exemplary embodiment may relate to a cellulartelephone detection system, comprising: a plurality of cellulartelephone transmission detectors, an interface device, and a telephonesystem. In such present exemplary cellular telephone detection system,each such detector is preferably operatively associated with apredetermined zone and configured to produce a detection signal upondetection of cellular telephone transmissions within its respectivepredetermined zone. Such exemplary interface device is preferablycoupled to each of the plurality of cellular telephone transmissiondetectors; and the exemplary telephone system is preferably coupled tosuch interface device, and otherwise configured to receive one or moredetection signals from one or more of the plurality of cellulartelephone transmission detectors and to generate one or morenotification messages indicative of detected cellular telephonetransmissions.

Present subject matter may likewise encompass a corresponding method formonitoring an area for cellular telephone transmissions.

Still further, present exemplary embodiments may relate to an inmatetelephone system, comprising a plurality of cellular telephonetransmission detectors, each detector operatively associated with apredetermined zone and configured to produce a detection signal upondetection of cellular telephone transmissions within its respectivepredetermined zone; and a telephone system. Such exemplary telephonesystem preferably is coupled to the plurality of cellular telephonetransmission detectors, and configured to receive one or more detectionsignals from one or more of the plurality of cellular telephonetransmission detectors and to generate one or more notification messagesindicative of detected cellular telephone transmissions.

Additional embodiments of the subject technology, not necessarilyexpressed in this summarized section, may include and incorporatevarious combinations of aspects of features, parts, or steps referencedin the summarized objectives above, and/or features, parts, or steps asotherwise discussed in this application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will better appreciate the featuresand aspects of such embodiments, and others, upon review of theremainder of the specification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

A full and enabling description of the present subject matter, includingthe best mode thereof, directed to one of ordinary skill in the art, isset forth in the specification, which makes reference to the appendedfigure, in which:

FIG. 1 is a generally representational block diagram illustrating anoverview of the present subject matter.

Repeat use of reference characters throughout the present specificationand appended drawing is intended to represent same or analogous featuresor elements of the present subject matter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

As referenced in the Summary of the Invention section, supra, thepresent subject matter is directed towards an improved apparatus andcorresponding methodology for monitoring for the unauthorized use ofcellular telecommunications equipment within designated areas.

Reference will now be made to the presently disclosed technology,specifically with reference to FIG. 1. It will be observed from FIG. 1that the present technology is directed to apparatus and a methodologyfor monitoring for the unauthorized use of certain types oftelecommunications equipment within designated areas. The presentsubject matter is primarily directed to the detection of theunauthorized presence and/or use of cellular telephones. It should beborne in mine, however, that the present subject matter is not solimited in that the present subject matter may be used to detect the useof other types of unauthorized communications equipment including, forexample text messaging devices, two-way pagers, and other types of radiofrequency transmitting and/or devices that may be used to transmitand/or receive messages to or from a corrections facility.

With further reference to FIG. 1 it will be observed that there isillustrated a block diagram of a cellular telephone detection system 100incorporated with an inmate telephone system. As mentioned earlierhereinabove, inmate telephone systems provide a number of features thatmay be used to assist law enforcement personnel in carrying out theirobligations to monitor and/or record communications to and from inmatesin a correctional facility. Such system are readily available fromseveral sources including the assignee of the present subject matter.The present subject matter relates to optional capability of such knownsystems in the form of a plurality of specially designed detectors that,when combined with known inmate telephone systems and, in particular,those of the present assignee, provide operational benefits that, in theaggregate, provide superior capabilities that simply installing a cellphone monitor in selected or predetermined locations.

With further reference to FIG. 1, it will be appreciated that there isillustrated a number of monitoring devices 1-8, each of which may beplaced in a cellblock within a corrections facility or in some otherappropriate location within the corrections facility includingconference rooms, recreational areas, libraries, medical facilities, orother locations within the correctional facility. Each such possiblelocation may be identified as a “zone” and designated with a zone number41-48 corresponding to monitoring devices 1-8.

Monitoring devices 1-8 may be coupled by way of individual cables to aninterface device 10 which is configured to couple signals by way ofcoupling cable 12 to an inmate telephone system 20. It should beappreciated that other connection methodologies may be employed tocouple the monitoring devices 1-8 to interface 10 including opticalcoupling as, for example, with an optical waveguide corresponding to anoptical cable, or by other communications methodologies including, butnot limited to radio frequency (RF) techniques including, but again notlimited to, Bluetooth®, WiFi, dedicated RF transmission systems, andother wired or wireless technologies. Interface device 10 may beconfigure to receive a signal form individual monitoring devices 1-8 andto provide information to inmate telephone system 20 that, first, asignal has been detected by a monitoring device and, second, thelocation of the monitoring device from which the signal was detected.

Information as to location of the various monitoring devices 1-8 may bea part of a data stream sent from the device itself that also includesmonitoring activity signals, or may be added to monitoring activitysignals received from individual monitoring devices based onpre-established information recorded or entered into the interfacedevice at the time of installation of the monitor devices 1-8 as well asthe interface device 10. Alternatively, location information may berecorded within the inmate telephone system 20 itself as, for example, alook-up chart in a memory or file contained within, or as a part of, theinmate telephone system 20.

Regardless of the methodology by which information is conveyed from thedetection devices 1-8 and/or interface device 10, such information maybe supplied to inmate telephone system 20 in a form corresponding todate and time of detection as well as zone in which, or device fromwhich, a signal has been detected. Upon receipt of the detectioninformation, telephone system 20 may be configured to respond in one ormore selected ways. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill inthe prison telephone system art, prison telephone systems and inparticular those available from the assignee of the present subjectmatter, may be configure to respond in various manners upon detection ofspecific telephone related events. Such may include the attemptedinitiation of a call by an inmate to an unauthorized called party oreven the utterance of selected words indicative or prohibitedactivities. In such instances pre-selected communications mayautomatically be initiated to alert appropriate personnel to theoccurrence of a potentially relevant event.

In a similar manner, the technology of the present subject matter allowsa user to designate selected responses to the detection of unauthorizedtelecommunication equipment by providing selected alarms or notificationmessages to appropriate personnel by way of the inmate telephone system20. In accordance with the present technology, upon detection ofoperation of unauthorized telecommunication equipment, signals are sentfrom one or more detector devices 1-8 in corresponding detection zones41-48 by way of interface device 10 to inmate telephone system 20.

Inmate telephone system 20 may have been previously configured torespond by sending or generating notification messages corresponding toany combination of emails 32, telephone messages 34 and or informationreports 36 to appropriate personnel and/or information storage systems.For purposes of the present disclosure, email may include any form ofnon-verbal electronic communication including standard email as well astext messages and instant messages, all of which may be transmitted byany available communications channel including those provided by bothwired and wireless transmission technologies. Telephone messages 34 mayinclude pre-recorded voice messages or any form of automated audiblecommunications included simulated voice announcements as well as encodedtones or other human perceptible sounds.

It should be appreciated that the chosen responses or combinations ofresponses generated or sent by inmate telephone system 20 may bereconfigured from time to time as necessary or desirable. It shouldfurther be appreciated that emails 32 may be sent to locations within aswell as outside of the correctional facility. In addition, telephonemessages 34 may take the form of automated voice messages conveyingselected information to personnel both inside as well as outside thecorrections facility. Such information may convey only that a detectionof unauthorized telecommunications equipments has been made so as toalert appropriate personnel to take appropriate actions, or may includeany or all collected information including location or zone from whichthe detection of unauthorized use has occurred as well as date and timeinformation if desired. Finally, an information log or file 36 may becreated for current or future uses as desired.

In certain additional, though generally limited, circumstances, it maybe desirable for the inmate telephone system to be configured forcontrolling and activating jamming technology, as generally representedby jammer device 38. For example, in a hostage situation, or in riotconditions, it may be authorized and desirable for the non-authorizeduse of cell phones to be jammed. In those instances, an appropriatelyconfigured inmate telephone system 20 in accordance with the presentsubject matter, could activate and appropriately control representativejammer device 38.

The present technology is designed primarily to detect unauthorizedoperation of telecommunication equipment within one or more detectionzones based on the detection capabilities of the detector device 1-8. Itis contemplated that such detection devices may incorporate sensitivityadjustment means that may include, but are not limited to; signal levelcomparators, antenna sensitivity adjustment means, as well as othersignal discriminating methodologies to provide a measure ofadjustability to individual detection zones.

In certain alternatives, it may be desired to have the subject detectordevices 1-8 be capable of also detecting non-cellular two-waycommunication devices (for example, two-way radios, such as used byguards). However, in those instances, in may further be desired andwithin the present subject matter that the resulting system is providedso as to be selectively responsive to such non-cellular basedcommunications devices, depending on particular needs in a givencircumstance.

It should be noted that while the principle concept according to thepresent technology is to limit detection to a particular zone ofdetection by the above enumerated methodologies, the present subjectmatter may incorporate triangulation features based on relative signallevels within monitored zones. Such triangulation methodologies wouldthen include an indication of detected signal level within a detectionzone which information may also be sent to inmate telephone system 20for analysis. The preferred detection method, however, is a zonedetection method wherein even if a single unauthorized piece oftelecommunications equipment triggers plural zone detections, all suchzones will “report in” to the inmate telephone system 20 which wouldthen generate plural indications of unauthorized operation oftelecommunications equipment.

As may be observed from an inspection of FIG. 1, certain of thedetection zones 41-48 may partially overlap other of the detectionzones, while others of the detection zones may not be overlapped. Forinstance, detection zones 41, 46, and 48 are independent detection zoneswhile zones 44 and 47 partially overlap and zone 45 partially overlapsboth zones 42 and 43. Should a signal be detected from any of thedetection zones, each zone may then be investigated by appropriatepersonnel as necessary or required. Such multiple reporting provides afar simpler and, possibly, more reliable detection system than having torely on triangulation methodologies involving signal levels that may beadversely affected by a great variety of signal absorbing entitiesincluding not only permanent elements including building structure butalso indeterminate elements including numbers of individuals within aspecific area.

Thus there has been described an apparatus and methodology for detectingoperation of unauthorized telecommunication equipment in designatedlocations. Moreover the disclosed apparatus and methodology permitsselected communication of such detection to appropriate personnel inselected ways in real time so that appropriate responses may be made.

While the present subject matter has been described in detail withrespect to specific embodiments thereof, it will be appreciated thatthose skilled in the art, upon attaining an understanding of theforegoing may readily produce alterations to, variations of, andequivalents to such embodiments. Accordingly, the scope of the presentdisclosure is by way of example rather than by way of limitation, andthe subject disclosure does not preclude inclusion of suchmodifications, variations and/or additions to the present subject matteras would be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

1. A cellular telephone detection system, comprising: a plurality ofcellular telephone transmission detectors, each detector operativelyassociated with a predetermined zone and configured to produce adetection signal upon detection of cellular telephone transmissionswithin its respective predetermined zone; an interface device coupled toeach of said plurality of cellular telephone transmission detectors; anda telephone system coupled to said interface device, wherein saidtelephone system is configured to receive one or more detection signalsfrom one or more of said plurality of cellular telephone transmissiondetectors and to generate one or more notification messages indicativeof detected cellular telephone transmissions.
 2. A cellular telephonedetection system as in claim 1, wherein said telephone system isconfigured to generate one or more notification messages in a formatselected from the group consisting of email messages, telephonic voicemessages, and information records.
 3. A cellular telephone detectionsystem as in claim 1, wherein one or more of said cellular telephonetransmission detectors are positioned such that their respectivedetection zones at least partially overlap the respective detection zoneof at least one other of said plurality of cellular telephonetransmission detectors.
 4. A cellular telephone detection system as inclaim 2, wherein said one or more notification messages include at leastlocation information identifying the respective predetermined zone inwhich said cellular telephone transmission was detected.
 5. A cellulartelephone detection system as in claim 4, wherein said locationinformation is supplied based on data stored in said interface device.6. A cellular telephone detection system as in claim 4, wherein saidlocation information is supplied based on data stored in said telephonesystem.
 7. A method for monitoring an area for cellular telephonetransmissions, comprising the steps of: providing a plurality ofcellular telephone transmission detectors, with each detector configuredto produce a detection signal upon detection of cellular telephonetransmissions; positioning the plurality of cellular telephonetransmission detectors in a respective corresponding plurality ofpredetermined zones within the area to be monitored; coupling each ofsaid plurality of cellular telephone transmission detectors to aninterface device; coupling the interface device to a telephone system;and configuring the telephone system to produce notification messagesupon detection of cellular telephone transmissions by one or more ofsaid cellular telephone transmission detectors.
 8. The method of claim7, further comprising the step of configuring said telephone system togenerate one or more notification messages in a format selected from thegroup consisting of email messages, telephonic voice messages, andinformation records.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the step ofpositioning comprises positioning one or more of the cellular telephonetransmission detectors such that their respective detection zones atleast partially overlap the respective detection zone of at least oneother of said plurality of cellular telephone transmission detectors.10. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of configuring saidtelephone system to generate one or more notification messages comprisesconfiguring said telephone system to generate one or more notificationmessages including at least location information identifying therespective predetermined zone in which the cellular telephonetransmission was detected.
 11. The method of claim 10, furthercomprising the step of configuring the interface device to supplycellular telephone transmission detector location information for saidnotification messages.
 12. The method of claim 10, further comprisingthe step of configuring the telephone system to supply cellulartelephone transmission detector location information for saidnotification messages.
 13. An inmate telephone system, comprising; aplurality of cellular telephone transmission detectors, each detectoroperatively associated with a predetermined zone and configured toproduce a detection signal upon detection of cellular telephonetransmissions within its respective predetermined zone; and a telephonesystem coupled to said plurality of cellular telephone transmissiondetectors, wherein said telephone system is configured to receive one ormore detection signals from one or more of said plurality of cellulartelephone transmission detectors and to generate one or morenotification messages indicative of detected cellular telephonetransmissions.
 14. An inmate telephone system as in claim 13, whereinsaid telephone system is configured to generate one or more notificationmessages in a format selected from the group consisting of emailmessages, telephonic voice messages, and information records.
 15. Aninmate telephone system as in claim 13, wherein one or more of saidcellular telephone transmission detectors are positioned such that theirrespective detection zones at least partially overlap the respectivedetection zone of at least one other of said plurality of cellulartelephone transmission detectors.
 16. An inmate telephone system as inclaim 14, wherein said one or more notification messages include atleast location information identifying the respective predetermined zonein which the cellular telephone transmission was detected.
 17. An inmatetelephone system as in claim 14, wherein said location information issupplied based on data stored in said telephone system.
 18. An inmatetelephone system as in claim 16, further comprising an interface devicecoupled to each of said plurality of cellular telephone transmissiondetectors, and coupled to said telephone system.
 19. An inmate telephonesystem as in claim 18, wherein said location information is suppliedbased on data stored in said interface device.
 20. An inmate telephonesystem as in claim 13, wherein said telephone system further includes atleast one jamming device, and wherein said telephone system isconfigured to receive one or more of said detection signals from one ormore of said plurality of cellular telephone transmission detectors, andto activate and control said jamming device in response thereto.
 21. Aninmate telephone system as in claim 13, wherein said telephone systemfurther includes a plurality of non-cellular two-way communicationdetector devices, each such non-cellular two-way communication detectordevice operatively associated with a predetermined zone and configuredto produce a detection signal upon detection of cellular telephonetransmissions within its respective predetermined zone;